Reading Between the Lines of the Miami Dolphins

2018 Season Begins With a Whimper

2018 Season Begins With a Whimper

On the heels of the Dolphins losing their last 3 games in a row in ugly fashion in a failed season, Stephen Ross came out with a vote of confidence for the architects of that failure, Adam Gase and Mike Tannenbaum.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not adamantly opposed to letting them keep their jobs. I’m not overly upset that they are staying. What I AM upset about, however, is Ross’s stubborn vote of confidence. I don’t mind that Ross keeps them, but he SHOULD say, “I’m going to take a few weeks and think long and hard about this. I do not accept failure, and I may make some changes.”

There is a big difference. Either way, Gase et al. are staying. But the way Ross handled it already, Gase is having a good chuckle under his breath. He knows he can do no wrong, just as Clueless Joey P. knew it for 4 long years here. If Ross handled it my way, at least Gase and Tannenbaum would sweat it out a little. On top of that, Ross’s statement has that “I am smarter than anyone” tone to it that frustrates me with Gase. He might as well say, “I don’t care what the fans want, and I don’t care how so many experts question Adam Gase’s ability, Adam is staying! Ha ha!”

Go ahead and keep your staff, Mr. Ross, but don’t make it so easy on them. Pretend you’re considering a change. And pretend you hear the fans.

So now onto the Bills game. Let’s start with Adam Gase and his ridiculous choices. For 16 weeks, we heard Gase praise Jay Cutler as an all-world QB. He wouldn’t bench Cutler no matter what, defending him left and right. And then all of a sudden yesterday, Gase felt that David Fales was a better QB? The time to give Fales a tryout is in practice, not in a real game. The pass Fales threw to end the game was among the worst passes I’ve ever seen a so-called professional throw.

And if you do choose to give playing time to your scrubs, why not try out others? Was there no one on defense we could have taken a look at? Jordan Lucas, for example? I wouldn’t mind the Fales insertion so much if not for Gase’s being so adamant all year about Cutler being his man. You still have to play a game to win. Picking 11th or 13th in the draft is about the same. Gase’s job is to win a ball game, not use a real NFL game as an experiment.

Speaking of playing to win, if Gase had called for 2 field goals instead of acting like a teenager playing Madden by going for it on 4th down a bunch of times, we would have won the game. You play to win, not to put your defense in a bad position.

I think the Dolphins will re-sign Jarvis Landry, and I am not worried about losing him at all. But the Dolphins need to reign him in. Jarvis, before you gloat, you need to read the scoreboard. I still don’t see how they overruled Landry’s fumble and Buffalo TD. He was not out of bounds at any camera angle, but we’ll take it. Then after Landry scored, he ran over and headbutted a Bill 30 seconds after the play was over. In explaining his actions, Landry said he was defending himself. Yes, the guy might have grabbed him during the play, and maybe even after. But to seek him out and run to him? That is not self-defense, it’s selfish thuggery. Last week, he helped cost us a game by fumbling to the Chiefs and he damn near did it again with Buffalo.

Gase has to reel this guy in. Leading the league in receptions on a 6-10 team that throws it 75% of the time is a meaningless personal statistic. Be proud of it quietly if you choose, but learn it’s a team sport and nothing to celebrate while you’re sitting home for the playoffs. And Kenyan Drake? Such immaturity needs to be corrected immediately.

The Bills added insult to injury when they put fatass Kyle Williams in to score a touchdown. What was Matt Burke thinking? There was one and only one play the Bills had in mind. They pretty much told you what was coming, and Burke instead called a defense as if he were expecting Williams to run a sweep. Horrible horrible coaching. The way the Bills mocked us from that point forward was hard to swallow.

Gase’s poor leadership and lack of discipline was very evident last year, and it’s worse this season. The penalties are backbreaking killers. But they are also learning opportunities for coaches, if only Gase weren’t so stubborn. Week after week after week, Gases watched opposing QBs change their cadence to make us jump offside. But Gase never tries it himself. 99% of our snaps are on “one.” Dolphin QBs don’t even try to fool the other team into jumping offside, and Gases refuses to even try.

The Dolphins had gone 2 and a half games without a third-down conversion until yesterday. On a third and 6, guess what Gase called? A running play! Can you believe it? And it worked. It worked again later. Drake converted 2 third-and-mediums on the ground. As I’ve been saying for a long time, you can run the ball effectively when the D thinks you’re going to pass. And for the first time in 2 long years, Gase tried it. He is notorious for not learning from his mistakes (and not learning from his successes), so let’s hope those running plays stick with him next season. And just in case he reads this: You are allowed to run the ball on third an inches. A QB sneak is legal.

The only good thing is that we put a scare into the Bills with the onsides kick. Until the Ravens choked their own season away to help the Bills.

More to come in the coming weeks about our options in the draft and other off-season moves.

20 Comments

This season was lost the moment the Dolphins gave Jay Cutler over $10 million dollars and kicked Jay Ajayi to the curb. Matt Moore, with his less that $1.5 million dollars contract , could’ve quarterbacked the Dolphins to the same record this year and Ross would’ve saved himself millions of dollars. I was wondering, after Cutler’s first three an outs, what the fuck are you doing Gase?… let Cutler finish this game and the season, the Dolphins already paid this POS, make him play and finish this disastrous season and decision to give him a contract. What did Cutler say in an interview the other day… oh yeah, “I’ll play next season if I’m not coming off the bench.” This ass wipe is straight up delusional about his ability and performance on the field. Dude, you suck, BIG TIME!!!

And Gase, the quarterback guru who never played professional or college football, not only he, but the Dolphins organization believed the hype about this half-wit play caller. The Dolphins are on the opponents two yard line and this clueless so-called genius is calling throwing plays.

I expect the same ole, same ole next season. But I wish the Dophins can at least give us fans at least some glimmer of hope by drafting a top notch quarterback.

U kno cutler was one of the three lowest paid starting quaterback in the league this year he sucks but he wasn’t overpaid. And Matt Moore is a garbage fire u remember the Ravens game? That was still the teams worst game of the year by far, ajayi hasn’t done anything in philly since being traded. My eagle fans friends complain how much be fumbles and bitches when he doesn’t get the ball 20 times a game. Drake is better than ajayi and he proved that in the second half of the season. Ajayi couldn’t do anything in Miami this year, drake comes in and kills it.

Fans are delusional if they think that moore would have made it through an entire season. Cutler isn’t great we all know that but there was at least a shot they made the playoffs so it shows that Ross is willing to try and spend the money. Moore is done can’t stay healthy as he’s slowed down too much.

I don’t think that they trade ajayi if he didn’t complain so much. How do you keep him in the locker room if he whines about getting more snaps especially if Drake outplays him?

I said as soon as Tanny and McMillan went down, the hurricanes delayed the season losing their bye and giving up the home game in london that they would be hard pressed to succeed. We can complain about some things for sure but that screwed them royally. Most teams would have had the same fate.

Thomas can go he’s not effective anymore.
Timmons can still help them although McMillan will be back. He can at least tackle when he’s there I’m more worried about Alonso he should be faster for his size and gets run over at times. Can’t cover TE’s either which hurts.
James keeps getting hurt and Sam Young played pretty good. Davis too but you still need depth. I guess the cash for James is quite a bit so maybe they’ll move on although I’d rather see them keep anyone decent in the mix for now on the oline.

It did say they might try to bring James back on a cheaper contract they just don’t want to pay him 9 million next year, and honestly I don’t blame them he has been a huge dissapointment. I don’t see how they can want to keep Kiko, the deal they gave him last offseason looks terrible right now maybe try to trade him for a 4th or 5th round pick.

They should have some bargaining power with James so I guess we’ll see if they try to use it or just cut ties. I would rather find a way to keep him and upgrade the OG’s. Davis wasn’t bad and Asiata hopefully will improve but they still need to find a true starter there at least 1.
They won’t get anything for kiko and Anthony may end up being a starter I actually hope so.

In the end it was better to lose the game as they pick 11 now. I wish they went to a lottery system so teams can try to win without hurting themselves. It’s worked great in other leagues. They did enough to make sure they didn’t win…

I’m not a college guy only what I hear and it’s always up and down with QB’S. I just don’t think that they should take one in the first unless they love the guy or trade back for more picks.

It’s tough as you have to take an impact position OG would be hard in the first but LB or DE or anyone who can cover a TE at 11 wouldn’t be bad. 2nd round QB or OG. I guess it depends what you can find in FA…

I wouldn’t take one in the first round, but this is a year we should grab one for sure. I hope SOMEONE in Dolphins management does it. If they allow Gase to make the call, he’ll say that his friend David Fales is the answer and no need to draft a QB.

I would like to see the Fins draft a qb in the first if a good one is available …if not draft a lb that’s quick and can tackle ..a beast…Trade Parker for no less than a high 2nd then draft a te then go get 2 ol then after that best player available .

The fins are to dumb to trade the always hurt Parker while they can get something for him just look at our pro bowl center for the most recent example! Of course after five seasons he went without and injury but also without being very effective!

No one is going to trade a second round pick for a often injured non productive wide out near the end of his rookie contact, can I get some of what your smoking? Maybe at best we can get a 5th for him but why would that be worth it. Demote him and let’s see if he has any real competitive fire.

Agreed. When a player isn’t doing well, you don’t have to trade him. Keep him as a backup and see what happens.
It’s fine if Gase hated Ajayi and Byron Maxwell, for example, but we shoulda kept them as backups just in case.
As it turns out, Drake had no backup in the last month of the season, and Tankersly’s backup was a group effort from journeyman practice-squadders.

I think it’s hysterical how the Dolphins say (and the media repeats this nonsense) that Parker’s lack of production is because of his sore ankle, or whatever weekly ailment he has. The brutal and game-costing mistakes this kid makes have noting to do with an injury. If he had a broken hand, that might explain the dropped passes. Besides the drops, there was also the lack of killer instincts. No fighting for the ball. Lazy route-running. And jogging sideways when we needed him to lunge forward with all his might to get a first down. I don’t think he competes hard enough, and that has nothing to do with a sore ankle.
Unfortunately, many other Dolphins don’t compete hard enough. Other teams see this in Parker too, and I bet they won’t offer us much in trade.
The will to win is there with Jarvis Landry. But who else do you see that from?

I see it from drake to but outside of that its blantanlty obvious this team doesn’t care as much as they should. The thing that bothered me the most was everytime we were getting blown out players started getting personal foul penalties and legit trying to fight the other team. Maybe use some of that energy to actually play good football next year instead of getting blown out and starting fights.